JR Chapter 4.2

Hey Guys Hope your weekend is going good. here is something to hopefully make your Sunday a bit better.

Puppet Pov~~~~~

We left the village the next morning. We wanted to get information as soon as possible for father, and while I had a decent reading on their location, I could be off by a few hundred meters to a few dozen kilometers until we get closer. Father had made us another new invention that he wanted us to test for the coming days. 

It was a large vehicle that had six large wheels that had a radius of nearly a meter. It was a large steel box but had plenty of curves that would help deflect anything that might hit it. The front window was rather small but provided enough visual to make our way through the forest. At first, I thought it would have trouble moving through the trees, but when it approached the tree line for a test, two large circular blades came out that spun faster than I could keep track. Father called the vehicle an ASV. 

The trees would be cut a few centimeters off the ground and as they fell they would be absorbed by the vehicle to power it. There was some script that Father had embedded in each vehicle so that it was like, as he said, “computerized dungeon core,” I thought it was an ingenious way to make a path through the forest. Father said we could just fly over the forest, but there were times when flying might not be available or even more dangerous than on the ground. 

We loaded into one while the group of nearly twenty automata that Father assigned to us loaded into two other vehicles. I let loose one of the drones I had worked on yesterday and sent it high into the air. The camera quality was much better than the others I had made, so I felt it was worth it. 

The vehicles had drivers that came with it so that if something broke on it, they would know how to fix them. Father called them a... Mechanic, I think. We made our way into the direction the sensation was coming from. The vehicles made quick work of any trees that grew too close to the animal path we were using to travel. We still didn’t see any monsters as we traveled, but that was starting to become normal. 

As we crossed over cut down tree stumps, the wheels would adjust to keep the chassis level. We traveled relatively peacefully for the first part of the day when things started to get interesting. I had just checked my drone to see if anything had changed up ahead when I saw that a flock of birds was approaching our location. 

They were large, like several meters across and long, large. Their feathers were pitch black. Arcs of lightning were jumping between the nearly ten birds. They seemed to notice something and started to lower their altitude. 

“Everyone, I think we have company,” I said to the party. 

“What is it?” Azra asked.

“A flock of birds that seem to be after something. And considering they are diving at us…” I said not finishing. 

Natsuko popped the hatch open and looked into the air above us, “Yep, they’re circling above us.”

“Think you can hit them?” I asked she was created to deal with this kind of threat. 

Natsuko looked at me and flashed an evil grin that I had seen of Father a few times, “No problem.”

She jumped onto the roof of the ASV and pulled her rifle off her back. Father had made it so that it compacted a bit more after he heard about some of the trouble she had since she left the dungeon. She clicked a button on the side, and the barrel slid out, she pulled a scope off her belt and quickly attached it. Then she lifted the rifle and pulled the catch backloading a round into the barrel. 

She took a moment to aim, then with a small boom, fired. I watched from the drone’s eye as a moment later one of the bird’s head burst into blood, brain matter, and feathers. The body quickly fell from the sky and before it had crossed a few dozen meters another of the bird’s had its chest vanish as it was shot by Natsuko. I gulped as I thought never to piss her off, not that I should have to worry, we were all part of the dungeon. 

As the two bodies fell from the sky, the others finally reacted and started to weave around as they tried to pinpoint us, at least that was my assumption, they clearly had lightning mana so they should be able to hit us. They started to rise but seemed to still be well within Natsuko’s range as another soon followed the other two with its head missing. 

It seemed the birds couldn’t take anymore as they started to send bolts of lightning into the forest at random near us. In fact, a tree right next to the AVS was struck and burst into flames. Azra had moved to the roof of the vehicle during the sniping and held her shield at the ready, I was glad that she was able to absorb energy up to a certain amount from incoming attacks. 

I turned my vision back to Natsuko as she fired again. She had two thin pieces of metal that almost remind me of wings coming out of her back. When she fired they emitted some energy to hold her in place. There was also a cord that linked the gun to her, whether to give it mana, or her more control over it, I would have to ask later. 

It wasn’t long before she took out another three and the rest of the birds decided that it was in their best interests to flee. I set my drone to follow them for as long as it was possible. They were headed in the direction that we were going anyway so I would be able to keep in contact with the drone for a while. 

It was around noon that something I had never felt before happened. We had to stop as everyone, even the automata accompanying us felt it. It was as if Father was… gone. I just couldn’t feel him anymore. 

“What, what happened?” Z2 asked with a lost expression. 

“I don’t know, something must be blocking Father. There’s no way someone could remove him,” I felt the link still which meant that the dungeon was still there, “I feel the dungeon still.” I finished as I tapped the crystal that was embedded in my chest. 

“That’s… that’s true... “ Z2 said as she regained a bit of spirit. 

“Let’s keep going, this mission is to help Master, so it's best if we finish it,” Azra said, she seemed less affected by the strange sensation. Most likely because she came from outside the dungeon. 

We roused the regular automata and kept going, but the pace was noticeably slower than before. Finally, after about thirty minutes or so, Father’s link came back entirely allowing us to breathe a breath of relief. After that, we picked up the pace to catch up with the drone that had left my radius. A few hours later, it was nightfall and the regular automata needed to stop so that they could recharge. 

The AVS, had several batteries that they could use to charge from, the excess mana from all the trees that were ended up cutting down to make a path to here. We set up camp by putting the three vehicles into a triangle and letting one of the automaton man the gun turret mounted on the top. They could charge and watch the surroundings via the long cord that Father had provided for the gunner of each AVS. 

I looked around to make sure that everything was set up and then jumped into the canopy of the forest. I quickly made a circle as I planted several of the low-quality drones all around us to make sure nothing could sneak up on us. Once done I made my way to the top of the canopy and peered out at the sky. Ever since the first day I was upgraded I have liked watching the night sky. Trees always made me feel calm, part of the reason I think is because of my make up, with barely any metal.

I watched the sky for a while then made my way back to camp. The automata would be charged around midnight, but we decided to wait until dawn before moving out as it would be safer. Plus, it reduced the chance of their mana being low in the case of an emergency. I laid on top of one of the AVS as I watched Z2 spar with Azra. They were keeping it low level, but it was still quite interesting to watch. 

Azra was holding out against Z2’s rapid assault. She was able to move her shield almost before Z2 could strike, even the trickier attacks were blocked as if she had an extra pair of eyes. I noticed Z2’s tail streaking in for a sneak attack that I know Azra couldn’t detect. I widened my eyes when Azra pressed her heel down gently, but a jut of stone soared out of the ground and blocked the tail strike. 

With Z2’s tail attack blocked it seemed that while Azra had Z2 pinned down, she couldn’t really attack as well. That’s when I found out I was wrong, Azra’s own tail slammed into the ground, and a pit opened under Z2. Z2 reacted instantly and her metal ‘wings’ on her back opened and released some of the liquid nitrogen stored inside to form a set of full-fledged wings. She flapped them quickly and easily took to the sky. I wondered how much mana that it took for her to be able to do that considering the weight of ice. 

“Hey, No Fair!” Azra called to Z2 from the ground. 

“All fair in a battle, if you feel bad, come up here and say it to my face,” Z2 mocked. She seemed to have cheered up considerably after she realized how easy it was for us to see Father. 

“You asked for it!” Azra shouted at her. I sensed the Terra in the area flow towards her in a rapid rush. What looked like black colored sand started to float around her, I noticed that her eyes had started to glow. Z2 took some distance and waited for whatever Azra was doing to finish. I couldn’t blame her, if I had no idea what was going on, I would put some distance between the enemy and me too. 

In a rush, all the black sand seemed to fuse with her armor, and she started to float in the air. She looked at Z2 and then like one of Natsuko’s bullets shot towards her in a flash. Z2 flapped her wings and dodged the rush with ease, but I thought it was more due to Azra still getting used to the movement of flight. 

Z2 frowned and readied her sword, I noticed that a small snowstorm had started to gather around her. I looked over to Azra, who had come to a stop in the air and she also had what looked like shards of metal that could rip someone apart floating around her. I decided that if the fight continued someone might get hurt, and it probably wouldn’t be one of them. 

“Alright, Ladies! We don’t know if someone is able to watch us, so let’s not use ALL our abilities in a simple training session,” I called to them, I had to lace my voice with mana to make sure they heard me. 

They looked at each other then smiled sinisterly, “let’s finish on a real battleground next time. Most kills wins,” Z2 said nonchalantly. 

“Sounds good to me, Puppet judges,” Azra responded even pulling me into it. 

I just shook my head as I watched them land and shake on it. I wasn’t sure if it was a woman thing or just the rivalry that comes from being strong and needing someone to keep challenging you to grow. I leaned back and flipped from my drones to check the area when I saw something alarming.

“Looks like you guys will get to set that tonight, after all, we got company,” I shouted to them, then to the rest of the gathering, “Enemy attack! Man your stations!”